Locally Solid Riesz Spaces with Applications to Economics

Download Locally Solid Riesz Spaces with Applications to Economics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN 13 : 0821834088
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (218 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Locally Solid Riesz Spaces with Applications to Economics by : Charalambos D. Aliprantis

Download or read book Locally Solid Riesz Spaces with Applications to Economics written by Charalambos D. Aliprantis and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2003 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Riesz space (or a vector lattice) is an ordered vector space that is simultaneously a lattice. A topological Riesz space (also called a locally solid Riesz space) is a Riesz space equipped with a linear topology that has a base consisting of solid sets. Riesz spaces and ordered vector spaces play an important role in analysis and optimization. They also provide the natural framework for any modern theory of integration. This monograph is the revised edition of the authors' bookLocally Solid Riesz Spaces (1978, Academic Press). It presents an extensive and detailed study (with complete proofs) of topological Riesz spaces. The book starts with a comprehensive exposition of the algebraic and lattice properties of Riesz spaces and the basic properties of order bounded operatorsbetween Riesz spaces. Subsequently, it introduces and studies locally solid topologies on Riesz spaces-- the main link between order and topology used in this monograph. Special attention is paid to several continuity properties relating the order and topological structures of Riesz spaces, the most important of which are the Lebesgue and Fatou properties. A new chapter presents some surprising applications of topological Riesz spaces to economics. In particular, it demonstrates that theexistence of economic equilibria and the supportability of optimal allocations by prices in the classical economic models can be proven easily using techniques At the end of each chapter there are exercises that complement and supplement the material in the chapter. The last chapter of the book presentscomplete solutions to all exercises. Prerequisites are the fundamentals of real analysis, measure theory, and functional analysis. This monograph will be useful to researchers and graduate students in mathematics. It will also be an important reference tool to mathematical economists and to all scientists and engineers who use order structures in their research.

Soft Computing Applications for Group Decision-making and Consensus Modeling

Download Soft Computing Applications for Group Decision-making and Consensus Modeling PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319602071
Total Pages : 488 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (196 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Soft Computing Applications for Group Decision-making and Consensus Modeling by : Mikael Collan

Download or read book Soft Computing Applications for Group Decision-making and Consensus Modeling written by Mikael Collan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-06-30 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a concise introduction and comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the field of decision-making and consensus modeling, with a special emphasis on fuzzy methods. It consists of a collection of authoritative contributions reporting on the decision-making process from different perspectives: from psychology to social and political sciences, from decision sciences to data mining, and from computational sciences in general, to artificial and computational intelligence and systems. Written as a homage to Mario Fedrizzi for his scholarly achievements, creative ideas and long lasting services to different scientific communities, it introduces key theoretical concepts, describes new models and methods, and discusses a range of promising real-world applications in the field of decision-making science. It is a timely reference guide and a source of inspiration for advanced students and researchers

Pre-Riesz Spaces

Download Pre-Riesz Spaces PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110476290
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (14 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Pre-Riesz Spaces by : Anke Kalauch

Download or read book Pre-Riesz Spaces written by Anke Kalauch and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-11-19 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph develops the theory of pre-Riesz spaces, which are the partially ordered vector spaces that embed order densely into Riesz spaces. Concepts from Riesz space theory such as disjointness, ideals, and bands are extended to pre-Riesz spaces. The analysis revolves around embedding techniques, including the Riesz completion and the functional representation. In the same spirit, norms and topologies on a pre-Riesz space and their extensions to the Riesz completion are examined. The generalized concepts are used to investigate disjointness preserving operators on pre-Riesz spaces and related notions. The monograph presents recent results as well as being an accessible introduction to the theory of partially ordered vector spaces and positive operators. Contents A primer on ordered vector spaces Embeddings, covers, and completions Seminorms on pre-Riesz spaces Disjointness, bands, and ideals in pre-Riesz spaces Operators on pre-Riesz spaces

Positivity and Noncommutative Analysis

Download Positivity and Noncommutative Analysis PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030108503
Total Pages : 604 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (31 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Positivity and Noncommutative Analysis by : Gerard Buskes

Download or read book Positivity and Noncommutative Analysis written by Gerard Buskes and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capturing the state of the art of the interplay between positivity, noncommutative analysis, and related areas including partial differential equations, harmonic analysis, and operator theory, this volume was initiated on the occasion of the Delft conference in honour of Ben de Pagter's 65th birthday. It will be of interest to researchers in positivity, noncommutative analysis, and related fields. Contributions by Shavkat Ayupov, Amine Ben Amor, Karim Boulabiar, Qingying Bu, Gerard Buskes, Martijn Caspers, Jurie Conradie, Garth Dales, Marcel de Jeu, Peter Dodds, Theresa Dodds, Julio Flores, Jochen Glück, Jacobus Grobler, Wolter Groenevelt, Markus Haase, Klaas Pieter Hart, Francisco Hernández, Jamel Jaber, Rien Kaashoek, Turabay Kalandarov, Anke Kalauch, Arkady Kitover, Erik Koelink, Karimbergen Kudaybergenov, Louis Labuschagne, Yongjin Li, Nick Lindemulder, Emiel Lorist, Qi Lü, Miek Messerschmidt, Susumu Okada, Mehmet Orhon, Denis Potapov, Werner Ricker, Stephan Roberts, Pablo Román, Anton Schep, Claud Steyn, Fedor Sukochev, James Sweeney, Guido Sweers, Pedro Tradacete, Jan Harm van der Walt, Onno van Gaans, Jan van Neerven, Arnoud van Rooij, Freek van Schagen, Dominic Vella, Mark Veraar, Anthony Wickstead, Marten Wortel, Ivan Yaroslavtsev, and Dmitriy Zanin.

Modeling Foundations of Economic Property Rights Theory

Download Modeling Foundations of Economic Property Rights Theory PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3540277846
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (42 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Modeling Foundations of Economic Property Rights Theory by : Vesna Pasetta

Download or read book Modeling Foundations of Economic Property Rights Theory written by Vesna Pasetta and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-03-30 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an introduction to the foundations of economic property rights t- ory (EPRT). In this volume, a ?rst step in the EPRT research program, rules concerningeconomicpropertyrights(e. p. r. s),entrepreneurialagreements,and enterprises are discussed. Introduced concept of e. p. r. s is an extension of the traditional concept of pairing of residual rights of control and residual rights of returns in the economic theory. Its importance in economics is generated fromageneralimpossibilityofmakingacompletecontract,concerninge. p. r. s, for any nontrivial economic transaction. The volume o?ers a theoretical - tension of mathematical economics, applying recent results of Hopf algebras, quasi-Hopf algebras, representation theory, theory of categories, and defor- tion theories, in looking for suitable mathematical methodology of economic property rights theories and foundations of general theory of economic agr- ments. The idea is to construct a kind of mathematical application in which any fundamental formal entity and/or operation has an empirical economic interpretation. This approach is seen as a way to cope with an extreme c- plexity of economic phenomena under consideration and requests for precise formulationofmodelswheremeaningfulanswersandsolutionsofproblemsare only those which are obtained rigorously. The proposed extensions in ma- ematical economics and property rights theory are to provide rich enough foundations to follow complexity of economic property rights in the exact way, and to identify where there is an appropriate method providing a- quate solution, and also to ?nd problems where in general there is no such methodology.

Infinite Dimensional Analysis

Download Infinite Dimensional Analysis PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3662030047
Total Pages : 623 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (62 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Infinite Dimensional Analysis by : Charalambos D. Aliprantis

Download or read book Infinite Dimensional Analysis written by Charalambos D. Aliprantis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 623 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text was born out of an advanced mathematical economics seminar at Caltech in 1989-90. We realized that the typical graduate student in mathematical economics has to be familiar with a vast amount of material that spans several traditional fields in mathematics. Much of the mate rial appears only in esoteric research monographs that are designed for specialists, not for the sort of generalist that our students need be. We hope that in a small way this text will make the material here accessible to a much broader audience. While our motivation is to present and orga nize the analytical foundations underlying modern economics and finance, this is a book of mathematics, not of economics. We mention applications to economics but present very few of them. They are there to convince economists that the material has so me relevance and to let mathematicians know that there are areas of application for these results. We feel that this text could be used for a course in analysis that would benefit math ematicians, engineers, and scientists. Most of the material we present is available elsewhere, but is scattered throughout a variety of sources and occasionally buried in obscurity. Some of our results are original (or more likely, independent rediscoveries). We have included some material that we cannot honestly say is neces sary to understand modern economic theory, but may yet prove useful in future research.

Sequence Space Theory with Applications

Download Sequence Space Theory with Applications PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 100061008X
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (6 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sequence Space Theory with Applications by : S. A. Mohiuddine

Download or read book Sequence Space Theory with Applications written by S. A. Mohiuddine and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2022-07-20 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book features original chapters on sequence spaces involving the idea of ideal convergence, modulus function, multiplier sequences, Riesz mean, Fibonacci difference matrix etc., and illustrate their involvement in various applications. The preliminaries have been presented in the beginning of each chapter and then the advanced discussion takes place, so it is useful for both expert and nonexpert on aforesaid topics. The book consists of original thirteen research chapters contributed by the well-recognized researchers in the field of sequence spaces with associated applications. Features Discusses the Fibonacci and vector valued difference sequence spaces Presents the solution of Volterra integral equation in Banach algebra Discusses some sequence spaces involving invariant mean and related to the domain of Jordan totient matrix Presents the Tauberian theorems of double sequences Discusses the paranormed Riesz difference sequence space of fractional order Includes a technique for studying the existence of solutions of infinite system of functional integro-differential equations in Banach sequence spaces The subject of book is an active area of research of present time internationally and would serve as a good source for researcher and educators involved with the topic of sequence spaces.

Topological Vector Spaces and Their Applications

Download Topological Vector Spaces and Their Applications PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319571176
Total Pages : 456 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (195 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Topological Vector Spaces and Their Applications by : V.I. Bogachev

Download or read book Topological Vector Spaces and Their Applications written by V.I. Bogachev and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gives a compact exposition of the fundamentals of the theory of locally convex topological vector spaces. Furthermore it contains a survey of the most important results of a more subtle nature, which cannot be regarded as basic, but knowledge which is useful for understanding applications. Finally, the book explores some of such applications connected with differential calculus and measure theory in infinite-dimensional spaces. These applications are a central aspect of the book, which is why it is different from the wide range of existing texts on topological vector spaces. Overall, this book develops differential and integral calculus on infinite-dimensional locally convex spaces by using methods and techniques of the theory of locally convex spaces. The target readership includes mathematicians and physicists whose research is related to infinite-dimensional analysis.

Mathematical Analysis and Applications in Modeling

Download Mathematical Analysis and Applications in Modeling PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 9811504229
Total Pages : 518 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (115 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mathematical Analysis and Applications in Modeling by : Priti Kumar Roy

Download or read book Mathematical Analysis and Applications in Modeling written by Priti Kumar Roy and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book collects select papers presented at the “International Conference on Mathematical Analysis and Application in Modeling,” held at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, on 9–12 January 2018. It discusses new results in cutting-edge areas of several branches of mathematics and applications, including analysis, topology, dynamical systems (nonlinear, topological), mathematical modeling, optimization and mathematical biology. The conference has emerged as a powerful forum, bringing together leading academics, industry experts and researchers, and offering them a venue to discuss, interact and collaborate in order to stimulate the advancement of mathematics and its industrial applications.

Financial Economics

Download Financial Economics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3662496887
Total Pages : 363 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (624 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Financial Economics by : Thorsten Hens

Download or read book Financial Economics written by Thorsten Hens and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Financial economics is a fascinating topic where ideas from economics, mathematics and, most recently, psychology are combined to understand financial markets. This book gives a concise introduction into this field and includes for the first time recent results from behavioral finance that help to understand many puzzles in traditional finance. The book is tailor made for master and PhD students and includes tests and exercises that enable the students to keep track of their progress. Parts of the book can also be used on a bachelor level. Researchers will find it particularly useful as a source for recent results in behavioral finance and decision theory.

Harmonic Analysis on Commutative Spaces

Download Harmonic Analysis on Commutative Spaces PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN 13 : 0821842897
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (218 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Harmonic Analysis on Commutative Spaces by : Joseph Albert Wolf

Download or read book Harmonic Analysis on Commutative Spaces written by Joseph Albert Wolf and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study starts with the basic theory of topological groups, harmonic analysis, and unitary representations. It then concentrates on geometric structure, harmonic analysis, and unitary representation theory in commutative spaces.

The Ricci Flow: Techniques and Applications

Download The Ricci Flow: Techniques and Applications PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN 13 : 0821846612
Total Pages : 542 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (218 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Ricci Flow: Techniques and Applications by : Bennett Chow

Download or read book The Ricci Flow: Techniques and Applications written by Bennett Chow and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2010-04-21 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ricci flow uses methods from analysis to study the geometry and topology of manifolds. With the third part of their volume on techniques and applications of the theory, the authors give a presentation of Hamilton's Ricci flow for graduate students and mathematicians interested in working in the subject, with an emphasis on the geometric and analytic aspects. The topics include Perelman's entropy functional, point picking methods, aspects of Perelman's theory of $\kappa$-solutions including the $\kappa$-gap theorem, compactness theorem and derivative estimates, Perelman's pseudolocality theorem, and aspects of the heat equation with respect to static and evolving metrics related to Ricci flow. In the appendices, we review metric and Riemannian geometry including the space of points at infinity and Sharafutdinov retraction for complete noncompact manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvature. As in the previous volumes, the authors have endeavored, as much as possible, to make the chapters independent of each other. The book makes advanced material accessible to graduate students and nonexperts. It includes a rigorous introduction to some of Perelman's work and explains some technical aspects of Ricci flow useful for singularity analysis. The authors give the appropriate references so that the reader may further pursue the statements and proofs of the various results.

Operator Theory in Function Spaces

Download Operator Theory in Function Spaces PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN 13 : 0821839659
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (218 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Operator Theory in Function Spaces by : Kehe Zhu

Download or read book Operator Theory in Function Spaces written by Kehe Zhu and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers Toeplitz operators, Hankel operators, and composition operators on both the Bergman space and the Hardy space. The setting is the unit disk and the main emphasis is on size estimates of these operators: boundedness, compactness, and membership in the Schatten classes. Most results concern the relationship between operator-theoretic properties of these operators and function-theoretic properties of the inducing symbols. Thus a good portion of the book is devoted to the study of analytic function spaces such as the Bloch space, Besov spaces, and BMOA, whose elements are to be used as symbols to induce the operators we study. The book is intended for both research mathematicians and graduate students in complex analysis and operator theory. The prerequisites are minimal; a graduate course in each of real analysis, complex analysis, and functional analysis should sufficiently prepare the reader for the book. Exercises and bibliographical notes are provided at the end of each chapter. These notes will point the reader to additional results and problems. Kehe Zhu is a professor of mathematics at the State University of New York at Albany. His previous books include Theory of Bergman Spaces (Springer, 2000, with H. Hedenmalm and B. Korenblum) and Spaces of Holomorphic Functions in the Unit Ball (Springer, 2005). His current research interests are holomorphic function spaces and operators acting on them.

Trace Ideals and Their Applications

Download Trace Ideals and Their Applications PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN 13 : 0821849883
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (218 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Trace Ideals and Their Applications by : Barry Simon

Download or read book Trace Ideals and Their Applications written by Barry Simon and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2005 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a review of the first edition: Beautifully written and well organized ... indispensable for those interested in certain areas of mathematical physics ... for the expert and beginner alike. The author deserves to be congratulated both for his work in unifying a subject and for showing workers in the field new directions for future development. --Zentralblatt MATH This is a second edition of a well-known book on the theory of trace ideals in the algebra of operators in a Hilbert space. Because of the theory's many different applications, the book was widely used and much in demand. For this second edition, the author has added four chapters on the closely related theory of rank one perturbations of self-adjoint operators. He has also included a comprehensive index and an addendum describing some developments since the original notes were published. This book continues to be a vital source of information for those interested in the theory of trace ideals and in its applications to various areas of mathematical physics.

Geometric Theory of Incompressible Flows with Applications to Fluid Dynamics

Download Geometric Theory of Incompressible Flows with Applications to Fluid Dynamics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN 13 : 0821836935
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (218 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Geometric Theory of Incompressible Flows with Applications to Fluid Dynamics by : Tian Ma

Download or read book Geometric Theory of Incompressible Flows with Applications to Fluid Dynamics written by Tian Ma and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2005 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph presents a geometric theory for incompressible flow and its applications to fluid dynamics. The main objective is to study the stability and transitions of the structure of incompressible flows and its applications to fluid dynamics and geophysical fluid dynamics. The development of the theory and its applications goes well beyond its original motivation of the study of oceanic dynamics. The authors present a substantial advance in the use of geometric and topological methods to analyze and classify incompressible fluid flows. The approach introduces genuinely innovative ideas to the study of the partial differential equations of fluid dynamics. One particularly useful development is a rigorous theory for boundary layer separation of incompressible fluids. The study of incompressible flows has two major interconnected parts. The first is the development of a global geometric theory of divergence-free fields on general two-dimensional compact manifolds. The second is the study of the structure of velocity fields for two-dimensional incompressible fluid flows governed by the Navier-Stokes equations or the Euler equations. Motivated by the study of problems in geophysical fluid dynamics, the program of research in this book seeks to develop a new mathematical theory, maintaining close links to physics along the way. In return, the theory is applied to physical problems, with more problems yet to be explored. The material is suitable for researchers and advanced graduate students interested in nonlinear PDEs and fluid dynamics.

Ordered Structures and Applications

Download Ordered Structures and Applications PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Birkhäuser
ISBN 13 : 3319278428
Total Pages : 507 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (192 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ordered Structures and Applications by : Marcel de Jeu

Download or read book Ordered Structures and Applications written by Marcel de Jeu and published by Birkhäuser. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the proceedings of Positivity VII, held from 22-26 July 2013, in Leiden, the Netherlands. Positivity is the mathematical field concerned with ordered structures and their applications in the broadest sense of the word. A biyearly series of conferences is devoted to presenting the latest developments in this lively and growing discipline. The lectures at the conference covered a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from order-theoretic approaches to stochastic processes, positive solutions of evolution equations and positive operators on vector lattices, to order structures in the context of algebras of operators on Hilbert spaces. The contributions in the book reflect this variety and appeal to university researchers in functional analysis, operator theory, measure and integration theory and operator algebras. Positivity VII was also the Zaanen Centennial Conference to mark the 100th birth year of Adriaan Cornelis Zaanen, who held the chair of Analysis in Leiden for more than 25 years and was one of the leaders in the field during his lifetime.

Isometric Embedding of Riemannian Manifolds in Euclidean Spaces

Download Isometric Embedding of Riemannian Manifolds in Euclidean Spaces PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN 13 : 0821840711
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (218 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Isometric Embedding of Riemannian Manifolds in Euclidean Spaces by : Qing Han

Download or read book Isometric Embedding of Riemannian Manifolds in Euclidean Spaces written by Qing Han and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2006 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of the existence of isometric embeddings of Riemannian manifolds in Euclidean space is already more than a century old. This book presents, in a systematic way, results both local and global and in arbitrary dimension but with a focus on the isometric embedding of surfaces in ${\mathbb R}^3$. The emphasis is on those PDE techniques which are essential to the most important results of the last century. The classic results in this book include the Janet-Cartan Theorem, Nirenberg's solution of the Weyl problem, and Nash's Embedding Theorem, with a simplified proof by Gunther. The book also includes the main results from the past twenty years, both local and global, on the isometric embedding of surfaces in Euclidean 3-space. The work will be indispensable to researchers in the area. Moreover, the authors integrate the results and techniques into a unified whole, providing a good entry point into the area for advanced graduate students or anyone interested in this subject. The authors avoid what is technically complicated. Background knowledge is kept to an essential minimum: a one-semester course in differential geometry and a one-year course in partial differential equations.